ODAN's
Opposition to the Canonization of Josemaria Escrivá de BalaguerSeptember 11, 2002

Statement on the Canonization of Escrivá

ODAN
opposes the canonization of Josemaria Escrivá de Balaguer,
founder of Opus Dei. Based on the testimonies of thousands negatively
affected by Opus Dei, and published evidence from various sources
revealing the irregularities surrounding Escriva's beatification
and canonization processes, ODAN strongly believes that canonizing
Escriva would be a grave mistake which would produce irreparable
harm to the Church and leave thousands vulnerable to the deceitful
and manipulative practices of Opus Dei. Specific details and reasons
for opposing Escriva's canonization follow:

Facts & Irregularities in the Escriva Canonization

The
quotes and facts below are taken from Kenneth Woodward's article,
"A Questionable Saint, Is Opus Dei's founder fit for canonization?"
Newsweek, January 13, 1992; from the official Opus Dei website;
from Kenneth Woodward in his book, "The Helpers of God:
How the Catholic Church makes Its Saints" National Catholic
Register World Notes May 10, 1992; from Kenneth Woodward's article
"A Coming-Out Party
in Rome, Opus Dei prepares to stand by its man,"Newsweek,
May 18 1992; from the Vatican website; and from the Catholic
Encyclopedia.

1.
Based on materials worked up by a team of Opus Dei priests, John
Paul II declared Escriva "heroically virtuous" in April
1990.

2.
In July 1991, a miraculous healing authenticated, in part, by Opus
Dei doctors was attributed to Escriva's intercession.

3.
There is no devil's advocate to systematically challenge a candidate's
claim to holiness. Thus some Vatican officials said Opus Dei was
able to use its influence to manipulate the church's saint-making
system for the benefit of its founder.

4.
Opus Dei's first prelate, Alvaro del Portillo, who was also Escriva's
successor, was a consultor to several congregations and councils
of the Holy See, such as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
As a member of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon
Law, he also helped in the drafting of the current Code that eliminated
the "devil's advocate," promulgated by John Paul II in
1983.

5.
An Opus Dei member, Dr. Raffaello-Cortesini, a heart surgeon, headed
the medical board that reviews potential miracles for the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints.

6.
Serious charges were brought that Opus Dei prevented critics of
Escriva from testifying at church tribunals called to investigate
his life. Opus Dei officials insist that 11 critics were heard among
92 witnesses. Several former members were refused a hearing. Among
them: Maria del Carmen Tapia, Father Vladimir Feltzman and John
Roche.

7.
Escriva defended Adolf Hitler. He told Father Feltzman that "Hitler
had been unjustly accused of killing 6 million Jews." "In
fact he had killed only 4 million."

8.
Even some Opus Dei sympathizers, like retired Cardinal Silvio Oddi
who served the Vatican for decades in key posts, believe the push
to make Escriva a Saint has done Opus Dei "more harm than good".
Although bishops are reluctant to criticize Opus Dei openly, says
Oddi, many are "very displeased" by the rush to judgment
and see "no need for the immediate beatification of their founder."

9.
Normally to assess potential saints the Vatican appoints "consultors"
who come from the candidate's homeland. Curiously, eight of Escriva's
nine judges were Italian - a sign say critics that the congregation
wanted to avoid Spanish theologians, many of whom are known to oppose
Opus Dei. Opus Dei officials argue that because Escriva was an international
figure and lived in Rome, there was no need to have Spanish judges.

10.
Opus Dei has refused to let outsiders see the material on which
Escriva's "heroic virtues" were judged -- an unprecedented
act of secrecy, say priests familiar with the process.

11.
Opus Dei officials have claimed that Escriva's cause had been unanimously
approved. However Newsweek has learned that two of the judges,
Msgr. Luigi De Magistris, deputy head of the Vatican's Holy Penitentiary,
and Msgr. Justo Fernandez Alonso, rector of the Spanish National
Church in Rome, did not approve the cause. In fact, one of the dissenters
reportedly wrote that beatifying Escriva could cause the church
"grave public scandal."

12.
Under Pope Paul VI, Opus Dei was suspect. Vatican documents show
that Paul worried that Opus Dei priests in the Vatican were leaking
confidential decisions to Escriva.

13.
John Paul II has increased the number of Opus Dei bishops . . .
(there were only 4 before, all in Latin America) and granted Opus
its own Pontifical "atheneum" in Rome despite objections
from the rectors of the Church's established pontifical universities.

14.
In 1982 John Paul II awarded Opus Dei a unique status as "personal
prelature" which means its clerical and lay members take spiritual
direction from their own prelate in Rome and not like other Catholics
from their local bishop.

15.
Opus Dei's real power is inside the Vatican bureaucracy . . .several
ranking cardinals and at least one of the pope's personal secretaries,
Father Stanislaw Dziwisz from Cracow are either [Opus Dei] "cooperators"
or like the Pope himself, strong sympathizers.

16.
Officials who supervise the media-conscious pope's liaisons with
television are members of Opus Dei.

17.
Officials of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints
not only gave the cause top priority but, as the official positio
on Escriva shows, they also bent rules to exclude damaging evidence
about Escriva's character and commitment to the church.

18.
The positio claims that the volatile Escriva lost his temper only
once, yet many former members who knew him will insist he was routinely
abusive of anyone suspected of being an enemy of Opus Dei, including
Pope John XXIII and Paul VI. Former numerary Maria del Carmen Tapia
relates in her book Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei
that Escriva routinely lost his temper, and that as secretary in
charge of writing down his words and actions, she was not allowed
to right down anything negative that she witnessed. She herself
was subjected to abusive words from Escriva, who called her the
most filthy names, e.g. WHORE, SOW, PIG, and then screamed during
this meeting with both men and women present, that someone should
"pull down her panties.... and give her a spanking," referring
to a fellow numerary woman who had assisted Tapia by mailing letters
for her. Regarding this statement, a supporter of ODAN wrote the
following: "This is the most bizarre and perverted talk coming
from anyone, man or woman, but for a man to say this to an adult
woman...for a priest to use this language and make this statement
to a woman; for a saint to make this statement, completely perverts
not only the rules of civilized behavior, but sanctity itself. There
is no excuse for this conduct, no excuse at all. This, in and of
itself, belies his sanctity."

19.
A Vatican source said, contrary to established procedure, no published
writings critical of Escriva were included in the documents given
to the judges of his cause; nor did the congregation investigate
Escriva's celebrated conflicts with the Jesuits, reports of his
pro-fascist leanings and Opus Dei's involvement with the Franco
government.

20.
40% of the testimony came from just two men, (Alvaro) Portillo (deceased
Opus Dei prelate and Escriva's successor) and his assistant Father
Javier Echevarria, (current Opus Dei prelate).

21.
Although 1,300 bishops and cardinals from all over the world had
written to the Vatican giving positive statements on the Opus Dei
founder, only 128 of them had actually met him in person.

22.
According to [Woodward's] research, Opus Dei members allegedly have
put hundreds of bishops under financial pressure in order to have
them send positive reports about Escriva to the Vatican. Especially
in the Third World, bishops were allegedly told that financial contributions
from Opus Dei might be in jeopardy if they did not answer the request
for positive testimony.

23.
The "devil's advocate" that had been part of the canonization
process before 1983 was replaced by a "relator"; thus
the door was open for the rapid canonization of Escriva. (Note that
the current Opus Dei prelate at the time, Portillo, was part of
the committee that eliminated the devil's advocate.) In the past,
it was the job of the devil's advocate to ask "why shouldn't
this person be canonized?"

Feedback
from ODAN supporters:(Opinions
held by the persons below do not necessarily reflect the views of
ODAN, its officers or Board of Directors.)

Joseph
I. B. Gonzales, Former numerary, six years

The
problem is not the man. It is the institutionalization of the man.

My
real concern is that his faults--his harshness, duplicity, or immoderation,
for example--should by the fact of canonization render these traits
dubiously normative, not only for Opus Dei but for all Catholics
as well.

I
hope that now that Josemaria Escriva is canonized, his life and
the organization he founded will be opened up to the critical perspective
that time and reflection by necessity lends to the fair understanding
of the lives of the saints. At this point we may perhaps begin to
acknowledge the glaring reality of his defects as well as their
potentially damaging influence, just as today we easily recognize
the vindictiveness of St. Jerome, the rigorism of St. Alphonsus
de Liguori, or the neuroticism of St. Therese of Lisieux.

John Roche has also added the following points to the list of Facts
and Irregularities in the Canonization of Monsignor Escriva:

1.
Words of Monsignor Escriva

"... as Jesus received his doctrine from the Father, so my
doctrine is not mine but comes from God and so not a jot or tittle
shall ever be changed" (Cronica);

"I
will pass away, and those who come afterwards will look at you
with envy as if you were a relic" (Cronica i, 1971);

".
. . when I think of this divine predilection, I feel ashamed"
(Cronica i, 1971);

"As
we come to know the Work ... not finding other more expressive
words of love, perhaps we had to have recourse to scripture: tota
pulchra est, amica mea, et macula non est in te (Song of Songs
4:7) ... the Work is tota pulchra ... this wonderful jewel that
men admire" (Cronica v, 1960);

2.
Words about Monsignor Escriva, from the internal magazine, Cronica,
while he still lived

"The
heritage of heaven comes to us through the Father" (Cronica
i, 1961);

"
... we will bless the Lord ... because He chose our Father as
the firm base for a Work projected through all the length and
breadth of time" (Cronica i, 1971);

"God's
grace prepared the priestly soul of our Father, making it to the
measure of Christ's heart, that is open to the multitude that
our Lord wanted to call to his Work with the passing of time,
and even to all humanity" (Cronica i, 1971);

3.
Facts about the Founder

L. Carandell, Vida y milagros de monsenor Escriva ... (Barcelona,
1975), 62-67. On 24 January 1968 Mgr. Escriva solicited the title
'Marquis of Peralta' claiming that there was a family connection.
He was granted the title. At the same time his brother, Santiago,
solicited the title 'Baron of San Felipe'

4.
Testimony of former members

During
the period 1959-1973, while I was a member of Opus Dei, it was
frequently stated publicly at get-togethers of members of Opus
Dei, that Monsignor Escriva had stated often that places where
important events happened to him during the early years of Opus
Dei would become centers of international pilgrimage -- John Roche

In
July 1973, in Galway, Ireland, Fr Daniel Cummings, the then Procurator-General
of Opus Dei informed me the Monsignor Escriva was divinely inspired
to found Opus Dei, that he could not err in matters of the spirit
of opus Dei, and that, therefore, as a condition of membership
I must believe in that Divine inspiration -- John Roche

"On
one occasion the Father was given the news that ... an old priest
... of Opus Dei ... had a severe haemorrhage and was near to death.
Monsignor Escriva replied that this son of his lacked supernatural
outlook, that he wished to go outside without wearing his cassock"
-- Maria Angustias Moreno, El Opus Dei, 1993, 57.

Other
comments about the canonization

Kenneth
L. Woodward, Newsweek New York, NY

Fair
to Opus Dei? Letter to the Editor of First Things, 61, March
1996, 2-7

I am pleased that Richard John Neuhaus ("The Work of God,"
November 1995) finds me "often fair-minded," though I
suspect that is only when my views mirror his -- as they often do.
That he detects a "long-standing hostility to Opus Dei"
is not quite fair-minded of Father Neuhaus. My writing about Opus
Dei has focused almost entirely on the beatification of its founder,
not the organization itself. On this point, the only fair-minded
conclusion I can reach, given the evidence of the positio itself
and interviews with people in Rome involved in the process, is that
Opus Dei subverted the canonization process to get its man beatified.
In a word, it was a scandal -- from the conduct of the tribunals
through the writing of the positio to the high-handed treatment
of the experts picked to judge the cause. That Newsweek caught
Opus Dei officials making claims that were not true is a matter
of record. Escriva may have been a saint -- who am I to judge? but
you could never tell from the way his cause was handled. Then, too,
there is the matter of the banality of his writings, especially
the axioms. Not the sort of stuff, I think, to build a spiritual
community around. As for the organization itself, I'm sure it meets
the needs of some Catholics. But as a parent, I am naturally inclined
to worry about its methods and to take more seriously than does
Father Neuhaus the complaints of those who feel they have lost a
child to the organization. I, too, thought Jim Martin did a good
job in his America
piece, and am sorry only that so many folks felt they could not
speak on the record. Whatever else it does, Opus Dei strikes fear
in the timid and the mitered. I've met some likable people in Opus
Dei but I'd hate to have my daughter marry one. To be fair-minded,
I wouldn't want her to wed a Jesuit either, though I hope she'd
ask one to say the nuptial mass.

Kenneth
Woodward is the author of Making Saints, How the Catholic Church
Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why, Simon
and Schuster, 1990, in which he writes about Opus Dei and Escriva's
beatification on pp. 383-389. One former numerary testifies that
this book is on Opus Dei's Index of Forbidden Books, with the most
restricted classification.